Numerical Study of Pyrolysis Effects on Supercritical-Pressure Flow and Conjugate Heat Transfer of N-Decane in the Square Channel

Regenerative cooling has become the most effective and practical method of thermal protection to the high temperature structures of scramjet engines. Pyrolytic reactions of endothermic hydrocarbon fuel have significant influence on the regenerative cooling process at high temperature due to a large amount of heat absorption and fluid components change. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) model is developed for numerically investigating the flow and heat transfer of pyrolytic reacted n-decane in the square engine cooling channel under supercritical pressure with asymmetrical heating imposed on the bottom channel surface. The one-step global pyrolytic reaction mechanism consisting of 18 species is adopted to simulate the pyrolysis process of n-decane. The governing equations for species continuum, momentum, energy and the k-ω turbulence equation are properly solved, with accurate computations of the thermophysical and transport properties of fluid mixture, which undergo drastic variations and exert strong impact on fluid flow and heat transfer process in the channel. The numerical method is validated based on the good agreement between the current predictions and the experimental data. Numerical studies of the pyrolysis effects on the characteristics of flow resistance and conjugate heat transfer under various operating conditions have been conducted. Results reveal that pyrolysis intensively takes place in high temperature regions. The pressure drop along the channel steeply rise due to the further fluid acceleration caused by pyrolysis. It is found that the variations of heat flux at the bottom, top and side fluid-solid-interface walls are totally different. Pyrolysis could lead to greater heat transfer enhancement at the bottom interface, consequently, more heat is transferred into the fluid region through the bottom interface. The dual effects of heat absorption and enhanced heat transfer caused by pyrolysis produce strong influence on the wall temperature. The mechanism of these physicochemical phenomena are also analyzed in detail, which is conducive to fundamentally understand the complicated physicochemical process of regenerative cooling. The present work has profound significance for the development of regenerative cooling technology.